


Falling Over Books and Tea

by theworldswecantsee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LENOY, M/M, also, it's funny, lance and keith are book nerds, lance had too many books, like lance is literally me, love you, pidge and hunk are done with lance's shit, pidge is shiro's favorite, slight matt/shiro, they/them pronouns for Pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 23:49:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9096016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theworldswecantsee/pseuds/theworldswecantsee
Summary: "He heard Hunk sigh as Lance turned to look at the other side of the aisle. He knew he was being ridiculous, he really did, but he was angry. And he was angry that he was angry. And frustrated. And he was so fucking tired of himself and his stupid anxiety and stuttering when he read aloud. And he tired of Keith Kogane thinking he had Lance figured out.And, god dammit, Lance was tired of having a huge gay crush on a guy who never even bothered to look at him."
 
Or, Lance buys books to get over himself but so does Keith and everything somehow goes uphill from there.





	

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY @KOUXTAROU I HOPE YOU HAVE AN AMAZING DAY

“Look, Pidge, all I’m saying is that anybody who wears that much black on a regular basis obviously has no concept _heat_ and is definitely an alien.”

“Keith is not an alien, Lance. Just because you two don’t get along doesn’t mean you can start accusing him of not being human.” Pidge pushed their glasses up as they tried to go back to their book. Lance sighed from his spot on the floor and took another bite of pizza.

“Whatever,” he mumbled and went back to his own book. Lance continued eating the pizza absentmindedly and hardly registered the apartment door opening. Pidge spoke but he was too engrossed in his book to pay attention and didn’t look up until his book was ripped out of his hands.

“Really, Lance, _The Great Gatsby_? Again?” Hunk raised an eyebrow at him and Lance whined. “This is the fifth time in just this month. You probably have the entire thing memorized now.”

“So what if I do?” Lance pouted.

“Then we need to go find you another moping book.”

“I don’t _mope_!” Lance whined as he tried to grab for the book.

“That is literally what you’ve been doing since you got back from class,” Pidge added which Lance thought was completely unnecessary.

Hunk sighed, “Come on, Lance, let’s go book shopping.” Hunk place the book on the coffee table and Pidge hopped up from the couch.

“Really?” Lance tried to conceal his excitement.

“Yep. Not that you even have room for any more books.” Hunk said as he walked to the front door.

“I’ll make room!” Lance shouted as he rushed into his room to grab his wallet off his dresser and slip on his shoes. He glanced at his two bookshelves, both completely full. He really did have a lot of books. Maybe he could ask his parents for another shelf for his birthday.

“Lance hurry up before we change our mind!” Pidge shouted and Lance rushed to the door.   

 

~~

 

“Lance, just because it’s a used book store and the prices are low doesn’t mean you can go crazy,” Hunk tried to reason as he took half of the books out of Lance’s arms to help carry them through the aisles.

Lance placed another book on his stack while making eye contact with Hunk. “Watch me.”

He heard Hunk sigh as Lance turned to look at the other side of the aisle. He knew he was being ridiculous, he really did, but he was angry. And he was angry that he was angry. And frustrated. And he was so fucking tired of himself and his stupid anxiety and stuttering when he read aloud. And he tired of Keith Kogane thinking he had Lance figured out.

And, god dammit, Lance was tired of having a huge gay crush on a guy who never even bothered to _look_ at him.

“Lance I can literally see the depressing aura around you. What happened?” Hunk asked calmly. Lance could only shrug. He knew why he was upset was stupid but today just wasn’t his day. “Lance, you can tell me.”

Lance sighed. “The professor made us read aloud today, and you know I always stutter,” he heard Hunk hum and continued. “I was already feeling crappy today. I woke up with that awful feeling in my stomach, didn’t get out of bed until five minutes before I had to leave. I felt like breaking down and crying the moment I stepped out of the apartment. So I was already upset and reading aloud did nothing to help. But fucking Keith decides to snicker as I start reading.”

Lance turned to face Hunk who was giving him a confused look. “What?”

“That doesn’t sound like something Keith would do.” Hunk said slowly.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s a regular at the café I work at. He orders the same thing every single time and stutters _every single time_.” Hunk said. “There’s no way he would laugh at somebody for doing the same thing.”

“Oh, well, now I really feel stupid,” Lance mumbled and Hunk let out a chuckle.

“You’re not stupid, Lance. You’re just not having the best day.”

“This is the third store he’s dragged us to, he better be having the best day of his god damn life!” Pidge practically shouted from the end of the aisle. Lance let out a laugh.

“Can we go to that tea shop that lets you borrow books after this?” Lance asked and shifted his gaze between his two friends hopefully.

They both chuckled, “Sure, Lance.”

Lance went back to browsing through the books in front of him when the bell at the door chimed as people entered the small store. They were whispering so lance couldn’t actually hear what they were saying but one of them sounded frantic.

“Shiro!” Lance heard Pidge shout and Lance sighed. They were always so loud, inside or not.

Wait.

Lance rushed to the front of the store to be greeted by the sight of Shiro attempting to keep himself steady with Pidge in his arms. “Shiro!”

“Lance I cannot carry both you and Pidge,” he said with a warning tone.

“I’m carrying too many books right now so you’re off the hook today.” Lance laughed when he heard Shiro sigh.

“Are you gonna get down Pidgey?” Shiro asked and adjusted Pidge to sit further up his torso so they didn’t slip.

“Nope.”

“Get off of my brother, Pidge.” Lance almost jumped when he heard the quiet voice. He turned his gaze to the boy dressed in all black except for the red flannel around his waist. Despite his words, Keith had a fond smile as he looked at the two next to him.

Lance could feel his heart hitting the ceiling.

“He’s my brother now, too, so suck it Kogane.” Pidge stuck their tongue out and Keith rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be rude, Pidge.” Lance actually did jump at Hunk suddenly coming up behind him. “And get off of Shiro before you hurt him.” Pidge groaned and slowly made their way off of Shiro who looked at Hunk impressed.

“I’ve been trying to get them to listen to me for years,” Shiro trailed off.

“I can place the food where they can’t reach.”

“Ah.”

Lance would have laughed but he got distracted by the poetry books placed across the register. They were all old and filled with ancient poems from different cultures that had been translated to English. Lance was already placing one on his stack when he felt Hunk staring at him. He turned to him with a sheepish grin.

“Lance –“

“Just one, please! Look how cool they are! Some of these languages are dead! Don’t tell me that’s not cool!”

Hunk just shifted his gaze between the stack in his arms to the one in Lance’s and sighed.

“Are all of those for you?” Lance turned to see Keith staring at him wide-eyed and Lance tensed up.

“Is that a problem?”

“Yes.” Both Pidge and Hunk answered and Lance glared at them.

“This is the _third_ store you’ve dragged us to and you don’t even have room for more books.” Pidge threw their arms up in frustration.

“I’ll make room!” Lance responded.

“You’ve had to say that the past few times even gone shopping for books,” Hunk raised an eyebrow at him and Lance heard Shiro let out a quiet whistle.

“You’re as bad as Keith.”

“Don’t bring me into this, Shiro!” Keith shoved at Shiro’s face but Shiro only laughed.

“Does Keith have a specific book he reads when he mopes?”Pidge asked and tugged on Shiro’s arm.

“ _Pride and Prejudice_ , and it’s more like pining,” Shiro chuckled and Keith let out betrayed gasp. “This is our third stop as well.”

Lance was about to say something but Hunk yanked at his sleeve and pulled him towards the register. Lance begrudgingly let the lady at the counter ring up the books – all eleven – and listened at Pidge and invited both Shiro and Keith to get tea with them. Lance wasn’t sure if Lance should be excited or extremely nervous.

They waited for Keith to look around the store and when he came back to front he was carrying almost as many books as Lance had gotten. When Keith grabbed a few of the poetry books, Lance felt annoyed that Keith was able to get away with buying them but also glad that he wasn’t the only one who found them interesting.

 

~~

 

“Wait, you’ve read the book how many times and you don’t even like any of the characters?” Keith asked.

“Well, I guess Gatsby is okay,” Lance trailed off nervously. He gripped his tea cup tighter and tapped his foot too fast. They had made it to the tea shop and after an hour of goofing off Shiro left to go back home to Matt and Hunk and Pidge used the excuse of studying. All of them knew Keith and Lance were far too invested in their own conversation to actually pay attention to what was happening around them and neither of them realized the others had left until thirty minutes later.

“No, I get it.” Keith added quickly. “I hate all the characters, too, but that’s _why_ I don’t read it that often.”

Lance laughed before bringing his cup to his mouth to cool off the tea before taking a sip. Was this his fourth cup now? Lance had lost track while talking to Keith. He wasn’t sure what time it was either.

“Actually, Shiro sent me this joke, earlier in class,” Keith took a sip of his tea and Lance almost spat his out.

“Is that why you were laughing?” Lance asked a bit loudly and Keith’s face turned red.

“Yes,” Keith choked out and Lance his face in his hands.

“I really am an idiot, oh my god. I thought you were laughing at me,” Lance whined.

“Oh gosh, no!” Keith blushed harder and gripped his cup so tight his knuckles turned white. “I’m so sorry you thought that!”

“No, no. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed. I just get so nervous reading in front of others and I just, I don’t know, freaked out a little.”

“I understand. It’s the same with me actually. I hate ordering things, too.” Keith ran a hand threw his hair.

“That’s the literal worst,” Lance agreed and sipped at his tea before he said something stupid.

“Um, excuse me,” a waitress came up to their table shyly. “I’m so sorry but we’re about to close.”

Keith and Lance both jumped up to grab their things all while apologizing to the waitress who was calmly telling them it was no big deal. Lance still felt really bad. He hadn’t even realized how late it had gotten and it was obvious Keith hadn’t realized either. Neither of them spoke again until they got to where they had to take separate roads home.

“Let’s do this again!” Lance cringed at how loud his voice was. “I mean, if you want to.”

Keith stared at him in surprise before blushing slightly and giving Lance a soft smile. “Yeah, I’d like that.” Keith was about to turn to walk away when he rushed back and gave Lance a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you in class.”

“Y-yeah,” Lance said as Keith turned away and disappeared around the corner.

 

~~

 

Lance was tired. He had been staying up the past two nights reading his new books and hardly having enough time to finish his homework. He was dozing off in his desk waiting for class to start when a stack of three thin books landed on his desk with a sticky note on top.

_I meant to give you these while we were having tea but I forgot them in the car that Shiro took when he left. They actually are pretty cool. Maybe we can talk about them over tea later?_

Keith had signed it and left his number at the very bottom. Lance carefully pulled the note off and saw that the books were the poems he had raved about in the store they had met at. Lance turned to where he knew Keith sat and was almost surprised to see Keith watching him. Lance wiggled his eyebrows and Keith rolled his eyes and looked away.

Lance turned back and saved the number in his phone. He opened the first book in the pile. He needed to be able to talk about them later after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Lol Lance is literally me   
> And the joke Shiro sent Keith was 'what is Jay Gatsby's favorite superhero? the green lantern'


End file.
